The use of mobile handheld communication devices has increased. Examples of such mobile communication devices include mobile stations, cellular telephones, wireless personal digital assistants (PDAs), two-way paging devices, and others. Consumers desire smaller handheld communication devices because, inter alia, they are often carried on the body. As a result, keypads or keypads on handheld communication devices must be made smaller as the size of devices becomes smaller. In addition, as the transmission of emails from handheld communication devices becomes more popular, users are required to type messages using the keypads of handheld devices. Smaller keys are often associated with smaller keypads. When smaller keys are utilized, users are prone to activate more than one key at a time, or to accidentally activate the wrong key. This results in reliability issues.
An example of a keypad that is being utilized on devices that transmit email on handheld communication devices is the SureType™ keypad, by Research in Motion Limited of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. This keypad utilizes a standard alphabetic key arrangement in the form of a reduced QWERTY array of alphabetic letters, such that fewer than 26 keys are utilized to display the entire alphabetic key layout. In addition, numbers share keys with alphabetic characters. Information concerning the SureType™ keypad is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,083,342, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
One current solution requires that increased pressure be required in order to activate a key. Increasing the amount of localized pressure that is required to activate a key helps to prevent accidental activation, but, at the same time, results in greater fatigue on the part of the user. Accidental activation of keys detracts from the user's impression of quality and usability of the handheld communication device. This ultimately can have an impact on the popularity of a product.